© 2016 by The Johns Hopkins University Press
The Deep Impact of
Applied Behavior
Analysis for
Children with
Autism Spectrum
Disorder
Todd M. Furman and
Alfred Tuminello, Jr.
Keywords: good life, ethics, pervasive developmental
disorder not otherwise specified (PPD-NOS), autism,
early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI)
I
f applied behavior analysis (ABA) works
as claimed by Furman and Tuminello (2015),
then both Schlinger (2015) and Potter (2015)
agree that ABA could, in principle, be an aid for
solving many more problems than just those as-
sociated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Does ABA work for children with ASD as Furman
and Tuminello claim? Schlinger believes that ABA
can, in fact, solve developmental and behavioral
problems associated with ASD for some children
to the point that those children might flourish in
the Aristotelian sense. On the other hand, Potter
does not believe that ABA can, in fact, elevate
children with ASD to the level of Aristotelian
flourishing.
Schlinger may be predisposed to agree with Fur-
man and Tuminello because he is a Board-Certified
Behavior Analyst and has probably seen the results
that ABA can produce not just for children with
ASD, but also for a wide range of people afflicted
with developmental and behavioral problems. Be-
cause preaching to the choir wins no new converts,
Potter’s doubts and criticism are the focus here.
Before responding to Potter’s objections, some
self-disclosure is in order. The genesis for Furman
and Tuminello (2015) was not to show a connec-
tion between Aristotle’s concept of flourishing,
Autism, and ABA per se. Rather, the prime motiva-
tion was to shed light on the fact that ABA can fa-
cilitate tremendous results for a sizable percentage
of children with ASD—results that would count
as a good life by most any metric.
Instead of proposing a new metric for a good
life, and having to defend it as well, Furman and
Tuminello used the somewhat familiar and strenu-
ous notion of a good life as offered by Aristotle.
The choice of Aristotle’s rubric was somewhat
capricious then. Hence, a full defense against Pot-
ter’s objections will not be mounted, except for
where she has underestimated the deep impact that
ABA can have on children with ASD—where the
accomplishments of children with ASD that have
been treated with ABA are on par with those of
normally developing children.